Every year, legislators hand UNC-TV about $12 million. It's money that comes with a subtle message.
For its part, the statewide television network offers North Carolina news and information each week to 4 million viewers. Reporters generally avoid controversial investigative journalism, and legislators say weekly policy coverage on programs such as "North Carolina Now" and "Legislative Week in Review" makes them feel good about their work.
Legislators this year may want more from UNC-TV. And they'll likely offer less support to do it.
UNC-TV managers seeking funding at the General Assembly this year will likely meet lingering questions surrounding a July series of botched reports on Alcoa, a private company seeking renewal of rights to control a dam on the Yadkin River.
Last year, UNC-TV reporter Eszter Vajda, now terminated, aligned herself with Alcoa foes, allowed them to pay $3,000 for a private researcher, and orchestrated pressure from state officials on her bosses to allow her to pursue the story unfettered. After a call from a powerful senator and a subpoena from the General Assembly, managers at UNC-TV took an unprecedented step and allowed Vajda to air her reports without any oversight.
The Yadkin River runs through the district of Republican Sen. Andrew Brock, who supports Alcoa's use of the river. He was confounded by the network's coverage last year.
"We need them," he says of UNC-TV, "but we need assurances that they can't have the people who control their budget telling them to run a piece that was paid for by the opposition. We need assurances that won't happen again."
It's an unusual spot for UNC-TV, which has enjoyed unwavering legislative support for a half-century. Besides its annual support, which accounts for about half the station's operating budget, legislators provided $78 million in capital expenses over the past 12 years. The 12-station network employs roughly 130 staffers and provides other programming that ranges from "Barney & Friends" to the "PBS News Hour."
Republicans are now in charge, and longtime allies such as Senate power Marc Basnight have left the legislature. Some in Congress are talking about cutting federal funding for public broadcasting. And managers at the network haven't made many changes as a result of the Alcoa incident.
Last July, they fired Vajda. But they have instituted no new policies or training programs. Citing legal advice, they also canceled a review of their coverage by a team of journalism professors at UNC-Chapel Hill, though a draft report was released by the school.
Managers haven't met with legislators to debrief them about last year's missteps. They call the Alcoa case an anomaly and assume others will, too.
"I believe we have the structures and policies in place to provide coverage that is fair, balanced and accurate," said Shannon Vickery, director of production. "That expectation is known by our staff."
Walking a tightrope
UNC-TV managers know they walk a tightrope: accepting taxpayers' money, provided by the legislators they cover.
They've drafted statements of purpose for their board members, recognizing the danger of letting their public status tilt the network's content.
But even before last year, UNC-TV occasionally faltered, allowing its reliance on financial backers to jeopardize its reporting. Basnight was met with applause by UNC-TV staff when he visited the station after he helped secure $65 million for the station. The station accepted a $300,000 grant from the Golden LEAF Foundation, which hands out tobacco settlement money; managers used it to debut a series of positive reports on programs the foundation finances.
Carter Wrenn, a longtime Republican political consultant, worked for Alcoa's opponents last year and became a critic of UNC-TV's management.
"UNC-TV swapped favorable coverage for grants. ... It seems a bit of a conflict," Wrenn said, referring to the Golden LEAF money. "If they are going to do that, how is what [Vajda] did any different?"
Pushing for help
Last year, Vajda, a senior legislative reporter covering the Alcoa fight, alerted legislators and lobbyists that her Alcoa documentary was in jeopardy.
Vajda declined interview requests last week, saying that the story was "old news."
According to e-mail messages and interviews, Vajda aligned herself with an old source from the legislature, former House Speaker Richard Morgan. Morgan was being paid to fight Alcoa's efforts; when he learned that Vajda wanted to create a documentary, Morgan decided to help her.
Vajda turned to Morgan to pay $3,000 for her friend Martin Sansone to come from England and help her research Alcoa, crossing an ethical line toed by most journalists.
Vajda asked Morgan and his allies then to put political pressure on her bosses, who wanted a series of shorter stories, not a longer documentary. In one e-mail message, Vajda wrote to Morgan and Wrenn, saying that she thought "it is time for another nudge from the top down."
Morgan and Wrenn and another ally, Roger Dick, reached out to Keith Crisco, secretary of commerce and a Stanly County native, to talk to network director and general manager Tom Howe about Vajda's documentary. Morgan assured Vajda that "Keith does know how to work his magic."
Crisco said last week that he urged UNC-TV managers to air the documentary during the legislative session.
Vajda also met with Sen. Fletcher Hartsell, a Concord Republican and a staunch opponent of Alcoa, who would eventually issue a subpoena for UNC-TV's work product about the issue, including its unaired footage.
Hartsell then visited Basnight, the most powerful senator and a longtime supporter of the network. Basnight called Howe.
"Tom was a person I trusted to do the right thing," Basnight said. "In fact, I trusted him so much, I put $65 million in the bond bill for UNC-TV" in 2000.
Welcoming a subpoena
Reporters and editors at most media outlets regularly contest subpoenas. But Vajda appeared excited. In an e-mail to Laura Leslie, then a reporter for WUNC public radio, Vajda wrote: "This is something I'm happy with! Will not impact others trust me! THIS is off record!!! Hartsell is saving my a--!"
UNC-TV complied with the subpoena. Meanwhile, a team of managers, including Howe and Vickery, met and decided the only way to quell such rumors of inappropriate editorial oversight would be to lift it entirely.
The network eventually devoted more than 35 unedited minutes to Vajda's reports on environmental issues on the Yadkin River, problems she blamed on Alcoa.
"We decided we didn't want to be a barrier to information coming out," Vickery said. "We expected the information would be reported as any other programming, that it would be fair, balanced and accurate."
Vickery said managers didn't know at the time that Vajda set in motion the political pressure exerted from the General Assembly.
Later, managers declared her work so substandard they removed it from the station's website and stopped others from using it. Alcoa spokesman Michael Belwood said that was the right move, but "by that point, the damage, from our perspective, was done."
'Very, very proud'
UNC-TV managers defend their handling of the Alcoa story.
"I am very, very proud of what all of our staff did," Howe said. "I've thought through all of these events; there's not a single decision I would make differently."
Vickery said: "We made good decisions based on the information we had at the time."
Howe said UNC-TV is protected from any political pressure on its content.
As UNC-TV's director, Howe spends much of his time courting private and corporate donors and keeping good relations with the General Assembly. Last July, Howee-mailed UNC-TV's lawyer and said: "We will need to do many things to try to rebuild the erosion of trust because of the lies that have been told to legislators."
Howe said he has not spoken with any legislators to assure them that UNC-TV is in good hands.
Instead, UNC-TV turned to the state for more funding this year to expand its public policy programming. UNC-TV initially asked for $1.3 million in additional money to hire 13 new staff members during the next two years. The UNC system's leadership, which brokers the network's budget with legislators, reduced that request to $500,000.
Howe, who is paid $232,000, defended the request, saying it is the station's responsibility to get as much funding from the General Assembly as possible before asking private donors to contribute.
Legislators haven't yet examined funding for UNC-TV, though cuts appear likely.
Rep. Mitch Gillespie, a Marion Republican and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, is an Alcoa supporter.
He promises, though, to put that aside during budget discussions and simply weigh UNC-TV's value against critical services such as education and public safety.
"Will they have to be cut?" Gillespie said. "Sure. Eliminated? That's another question."
